It Was an Isolated Incident
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent on Utah v. Strieff, a Fourth Amendment case about police searches:
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are “isolated.” They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere. They are the ones who recognize that unlawful police stops corrode all our civil liberties and threaten all our lives. Until their voices matter too, our justice system will continue to be anything but.
Utah v. Strieff • 2016 Jun 20 • Supreme Court of the United States
See also: - “No One Can Breathe in This Atmosphere” • Everyone should read Justice Sonia Sotomayor on how police stops are life-and-death experiences for people of color • 2016 Jul 7 • Dahlia Lithwick • Slate - Justice Sotomayor’s Ringing Dissent • 2016 Jun 20 • Matt Ford • The Atlantic - You need to read Sonia Sotomayor’s devastating, Ta-Nehisi Coates-citing Supreme Court dissent • 2016 Jun 20 • Victoria M. Massie • Vox